The present invention relates generally to the field of physics simulation, and more particularly to a method of and system for real-time simulation of nets and collisions therewith by characters and/or object in simulated environment.
As video games continue to increase in complexity, players continue to demand games that provide more and more realistic simulated environment. Players expect characters and objects in the simulated environment to behave like objects in the real world and for characters and/or objects to interact in a realistic fashion.
Sports video games are an extremely popular video game genre, and a number of the sports games provide simulated playing environments of real world sports games that include the use of nets, such as soccer and hockey. Traditionally simulation of nets in a video game environment has been achieved using animations or rigid body systems. However, both of these approaches are limited in their ability to produce realistic simulations of the behavior of nets in real time. For example, animation must be rendered in advance and provides limited flexibility and results in a loss of dynamic quality which may produce a “canned” and unrealistic looking result since the simulation is limited to using only a set of pre-rendered animations to generate all behavior of the nets.
In a real time simulated environment, such as a video game, predicting and animating all of the external forces that may act upon a net in such an environment would be nearly impossible. For example, minute changes in the direction and velocity at which an object collides with a net may produce significantly different deformations in the net. Furthermore, rigid body systems do not provide realistic results when rendering a net. In a rigid body system, the distance between particles comprising an object remain at the same relative distance from one another. In contrast, in a net the relative distance between particles may vary as the fabric of the net stretches and flexes in response to collisions. Thus, neither of the traditional approaches for simulating the behavior of nets produces a very satisfactory result.
In order to meet the demand for increasingly realistic rendering of characters and objects in video games an improved method of simulating the behavior of nets is required.